Fullerton—The UC Riverside Volleyball team dropped its 2016 Big West opener at Cal State Fullerton 3-1, despite double-digit kills from Mickayla Sherman, Meg Graham and Cristina Maietta. (25-23, 26-28, 22-25, 17-25)

In a rematch of the 2015 season opener, the Highlanders took the opening set, but were unable to hold off the Titan from taking three straight sets to win the match.

The Highlanders prevailed 25-23 in the opening set behind four kills by Sherman, 10 assists from Chelsea Doyle and Maddie Hubbell's nine digs.  

In the second set, UCR jumped out to a 7-1 lead and appeared to be on the way their way to a two sets to none advantage, but Fullerton climbed back into the set and went ahead 17-15. The Titans carried the two-point margin to a 28-26 second set victory.

Midway through the third set, the Highlanders trailed 16-10, before they trimmed the Titans' lead to one at 20-19. CSUF would outscore UCR 5-3 down the stretch to claim the third 25-22, and take a 2-1 lead.

For the second set in a row, Cal State Fullerton went up 16-10 and once again UC Riverside battled back, this time taking four of five points to force the Titans to call for time leading 17-14 in the fourth. The clubs split the next four points, before the hosts took six of the final seven en route to a 25-17 fourth set, and 3-1 match victory.

Sherman led the way with 16 kills, Graham had 12, and Maietta had 10 kills to go along with 12 digs to round out the three Highlanders with double-digit kills. Doyle had 40 assists, 10 digs, and a season-high four blocks, while Hubbell finished with 23 digs.

The Titans were led by Shimen Fayed's 27-kill, 22-dig double-double in picking up their first conference win since the 2014 season.

UC Riverside continues conference play on the road with their longest trip of the season, a match-up with #15 Hawai'i on Sunday, October 2nd.